Talk:Pokémon world in relation to the real world: Difference between revisions

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I have two questions, 1. Why is it that only the three latest regions have a compairing image to the corresponding real world location? Also both Unova's and Kalos' as well as Almia's image all have the real world location above it while Alola's is located beneeth. Why? 2. Isn't the Mystery Dungeon world based on somewhere in the world or is it just made out of the air so to speak. --[[User:Raltseye|<span style="color:#FF6464">R</span><span style="color:#11BB11">alts</span><span style="color:#6464FF">eye</span>]] [[User talk:Raltseye|prata med mej]] 11:14, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
I have two questions, 1. Why is it that only the three latest regions have a compairing image to the corresponding real world location? Also both Unova's and Kalos' as well as Almia's image all have the real world location above it while Alola's is located beneeth. Why? 2. Isn't the Mystery Dungeon world based on somewhere in the world or is it just made out of the air so to speak. --[[User:Raltseye|<span style="color:#FF6464">R</span><span style="color:#11BB11">alts</span><span style="color:#6464FF">eye</span>]] [[User talk:Raltseye|prata med mej]] 11:14, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
== Blackthorn City, Dragon's Den and Ice Path ==
Northeastern Johto is not an easy area to pin down, but I think I've found something that accurately depicts the Blackthorn area. I can tell people have already made a significant effort to locate these places, so I don't want to make any changes to their contributions without talking about them first.
First off, I don't think there's much significance between Clair's Japanese name, Ibuki, and the suggested Dragon's Den, Mt. Ibuki. Ibuki means "breath", and is often associated with a strong will, impulsive behavior and over-sensitivity; this seems to fit Clair pretty well. In GSC, the TM she awards you with is Dragonbreath, or Ryu-no-ibuki in the JP version, another possible origin of her name. I'm sorry, but I'm really starting to doubt her name was inspired by the mountain believed to have the had the world's heaviest snowfall in recorded history, so I don't think there's much supporting that mountain as the location of Dragon's Den. However, given the mountain's close proximity to "Mahogany" and "Lake of Rage" and its own icy history, I think it's a strong candidate for the entrance to Ice Path.
The next thing I want to critique is the Blackthorn-Shirakawa theory. The main thing that made me look into this is that Shirakawa is significantly far away from where you'd expect to find it relative to the other locations we've found, and unlike the the questionable relationship between Cherrygrove/Violet, Shirakawa is also very far away from every other location we've found (it's the most isolated location in all of real-world Johto/Kanto to date). Additionally, Shirakawa is famous for its nearly-uniform gasshō-zukuri, but these designs aren't reflected in Blackthorn's new buildings even though Violet and Ecruteak received makeovers that match Nara and Kyoto.
Okay, now for my suggestions. I think Blackthorn is Kai/Kofu, Yamanashi; Ice Path (exit) is the oft-hypothesized Narusawa Ice Cave, Yamanashi; and Dragon's Den is Kanazakura-jinja Shrine, Yamanashi.
My first lead came when I saw a "Did You Know" on the Smash Bros series; during development the first game was called "Dragon King: Fighting Game" and featured a striking picture of a low-rise neighborhood with Mt Fuji (Mt Silver) in the background. The video claimed the game's name came from that neighborhood, which just so happened to be where HAL Laboratory was located, and that the picture was taken by a certain programmer I'll name later. This all piqued my interest, so I started digging. The town's name was Ryūō, with a population around 40,000 (right on the low end of other towns believed to inspire other towns up to this point), and it was merged with several other towns into Kai in 2004 (after the release of GSC). Geographically, it's a strong match for Blackthorn, surrounded by mountains and with Fuji standing prominently to its Southeast; the biggest issue is that it's tightly clustered with a number of significant cities. Then I zoomed out, and I realized the broader Kofu basin is a very close match to the birds-eye view shape of Blackthorn (use Earth mode to make this more apparent). According to legend, the Kofu basin used to be a lake until Kami pushed on of the mountains aside and the lake drained to the south; this southerly river-valley is clearly visible from a map and could explain the river in Blackthorn and Route 45 in HGSS.
Okay, so Dragon's Den. Kanazakura-jinja Shrine is just north of Kai, it prominently features a pair of dragons, the "rising and falling dragons", and one carries a fire crystal and the other a water crystal. The translations from their website are a little wonky, but it sounds like these dragons symbolize the reconstruction of the main shrine after it collapsed in a 1953 fire (there's also some visible damage to the Den in HGSS), with the dragons drawing attention to fire above and water below. Rising and falling dragons, fire above/water below... I think this symbolism is an interesting parallel to Dragon's Den and the lava-filled Gym located directly above it, and what was the name of that Gym's badge? Rising. Also, the Shrine wasn't all that burned; most of the Kofu basin was destroyed in a night-time air raid in 1945. Combined, these fires may have inspired Blackthorn's name, Fusube, or black smoke.
Anyone who's still reading has probably already encountered the idea that Narusawa Ice Cave corresponds to Ice Path, so I'll just say Kai/Kofu is sandwiched neatly between the Cave and the Shrine. Also, an Ibuki/Naursawa fused Ice Path may serve as a "portal" of sorts to cover the long distance between Koka/Mahogany and Kai.
Finally, earlier I mentioned HAL's R&D center in Kai and a certain programmer. We know that GameFreak has a habit of featuring themselves in the Pokemon games, but what about guest programmers? Well, HAL may not have worked on GSC directly, but their then-president did! Satoru Iwata famously helped development along through graphical compression (he's directly attributed with freeing up enough space on the cartridges to add the Kanto region to the games), so where might he be in Blackthorn? The Move Deleter, of course! Iwata freed up space on the carts, the MD frees up space on your Pokemon; considering everything else, I find this to be more than mere coincidence.
Any one of these location changes might not be very persuasive on their own, but I think they're pretty compelling when taken altogether. What do you guys think about these possible changes in our listed locations?[[User:Areku|Areku]] ([[User talk:Areku|talk]]) 07:29, 3 January 2017 (UTC)
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